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A new survey by PRWeek indicates that just 25 percent of people working in online media believe it's "extremely important" to have an exclusive on a story, compared to 42 percent of their counterparts in traditional media (newspapers, radio, TV, wire services and magazines). The share of journalists that values an exclusive has dropped among all media since 2008, according to the PRWeek/Porter Novelli Media Content Survey. "A shifting media makeup has led to the death of the scoop, the simultaneous rise of punditry, and in turn, a crop of new influencers. There is a growing emphasis placed on opinionated analysis and online curation. Rather than being the first to the story, the new media influencers want to be the first to provide a snappy outtake of the news."

The PRWeek news release:

2011 PRWeek/Porter Novelli Media Content Survey

A shifting media makeup has led to the death of the scoop, the simultaneous rise of punditry, and in turn, a crop of new influencers. There is a growing emphasis placed on opinionated analysis and online curation. Rather than being the first to the story, the new media influencers want to be the first to provide a snappy outtake of the news.

Some of this year's survey's key findings:

42% of traditional media (newspapers, radio, TV, wires, magazines) find it "extremely important" to be the first to report on a topic via an exclusive or a scoop vs. 25% of online media (bloggers, online news sites)

47% of those in traditional media say their primary goal is to "educate and inform," while 41% of those in online media share this as a primary goal

59% of media say social media has increased their readership, viewership, or listenership

58% of traditional media consume most media online, while 95% of online media do

Traditional media continues to be impacted by tight budgets: 71% say they have more work compared to last year; 37% say tightening budgets impacted their job over the last year. They are also responsible for contributing to new platforms outside of their traditional duties: 56% contribute to a social media page; 42% to a blog; 37% to an app or digital edition; and 30% to video

Of the 855 respondents, 41% identified as working at a newspaper; 20% for a magazine; 13% an online news site; 9% TV; 8% blog; 5% radio; 4% other; and 1% for a wire service.

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AUTHOR INFORMATION

Steve Myers was the managing editor of Poynter.org until August 2012, when he became the deputy managing editor and senior staff writer for The Lens, a nonprofit investigative news site in New Orleans.
Before working at Poynter Online, Steve spent about six years in Mobile, Ala., as a reporter for the Press-Register, focusing on local government accountability. He was a 2006 Ohio State University Kiplinger Fellow and an Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow.
Contact him by email at myers.news@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @myersnews.